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Canadian cities need to have an open debate about the risks and benefits of Chinese money — including “hot” funds brought in by corrupt officials — in Canada’s housing market, according to a former senior Harper government official.

OTTAWA — Canadian cities need to have an open debate about the risks and benefits of Chinese money — including “hot” funds brought in by corrupt officials — in Canada’s housing market, according to a former senior Harper government official.

OTTAWA — Canadian cities need to have an open debate about the risks and benefits of Chinese money — including “hot” funds brought in by corrupt officials — in Canada’s housing market, according to a former senior Harper government official. The recommendation comes from David Mulroney, Canada’s ambassador to China from 2009-2012 and a former senior foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

This new house in Richmond’s Riverdale district has been loaded with high-end finishings. Soaring ceilings accentuated by double-height windows bring in natural light and provide a base from which to showcase the pendant lighting and sparkling chandeliers.

Despite a real estate slowdown in other parts of Canada, Okanagan developers and realtors are confident last year’s market recovery will continue in 2015 — just as sure as the thermometer rises with approaching spring.

If you were the city of Vancouver and were repeatedly criticized for making planning decisions behind closed doors, how would you gain the trust of your citizens? Recently, the B.C. Supreme Court echoed those concerns and put the brakes on a development in Yaletown. Now the city plans to mount a lengthy and costly appeal. Instead, might you want to consider this setback as an opportunity to take a fresh approach?

Neighbours of a proposed social housing development built from used shipping containers are raising concerns that the plans don’t do enough to revitalize a rundown stretch of East Hastings Street. The City of Vancouver will hold a community open house on Monday to introduce the proposal for 420 Hawks Ave., a seven-storey development planned by Atira Women’s Housing Society that would include 20 bachelor apartments and six two-bedroom units dedicated to housing women and children.

Metro Vancouver municipalities are once again engaged in the so-called “monster-home” debate, this time clashing with homeowners as they prepare to cash out on their single largest investment, their homes. The demand for new and larger homes is encouraging builders to tear down and build big. But just how big is the question.

VICTORIA — Not often does a new cash cow get herded onto the floor of the legislature, but that was surely what happened on March 19, 1987. It was budget day and the government of then premier Bill Vander Zalm, fresh from victory at the polls, announced a new tax on the purchase of property in an effort to get a piece of the action from a soaring real estate market and perhaps put a check on speculation.

VANCOUVER — What is so intriguing about Vancouver’s housing market is not that the high prices keep rising ever higher, it is that Vancouver-area residents, with no better than middling incomes by Canadian standards, keep right on buying. Richmond, Burnaby and the east side of Vancouver recently joined the west side of Vancouver, West Vancouver and North Vancouver as municipalities where the median price of a single-family house now exceeds $1 million.